Hey everyone,
I have finally settled down in Sydney.
Sorry it took so long to post but I was kind of jet lagged :)
The plane ride over was great! Got to spend some time in LA! haha I mean LAX. Got on the Qantas plane and guess who was sitting next to me - another Sydney exchange student! Sadly, she wasn't going to UTS, but we had a fun time watching movies and talking.
The views from the plane were gorgeous! As we flew towards Sydney, the first officer came on the speakers and said "Those of you on the right will see great views of Sydney Harbor..." Guess which side I was on - the left! lol but that's ok, the landscape was still really beautiful.
I ended up taking a bus to UTS, which was great because there were other people to talk to and the driver kind of acted as a tour guide, which was nice.
The first thing I had to do was get a temporary key for my dorm from Security in the main tower building, which I don't know if I've said before was named "The Ugliest Building in Sydney". Two RNs (like our RAs) escorted me to the dorm. Both were French and very nice!
And again guess what?!? My key didn't work to get into the dorm! It worked on my dorm room and stuff but not the actual building itself. So pretty much for the rest of the day I and some of the RNs scrambled around trying to fix it. Let's just say, I made a lot of friends that day :)
The next day was much better - I met my roommates, did some shopping, and went to the Chinese New Year parade.
UTS is so cool because it is right next to Chinatown (so I will always get excellent Asian food!) and a big shopping center. Oh and the other cool thing - I live on Broadway (theatre nerd moment)!
The Broadway Shopping Center is really cool it's full of everything I need - banks, grocery stores, clothes, phones, food, and Target. yes, they have Target, it's just not as cool as ours are. They also have KMart, so I feel very much at home. The best thing though is the escalators! One - they are on the left side which is really hard to get used to and Two - they are ramps so that you can ride up the different levels with your shopping cart. So convenient!
Chinese New Year Parade was awesome! Lots of light and bright colors. I also had a great time getting to know other people who lived in the residences. After a while we left and went to go watch fireworks. In a harbor. No biggie :) Darling Harbor is about a 20-30 minutes walk from UTS but it is so pretty and has a great view of the city skyline I will probably visit it often.
So far it has been pretty amazing! Thank you for keeping me in your prayers!
-Karen
